November Update

11 new chips have been added to the collection since the last update.  They are:

1.  Blackbird Bend Casino - Iowa.  Just north of Omaha and on the other side of the Missouri River, I visited this casino on a work trip.  We ate at their less than stellar buffet for dinner one night.  One of the least busy casinos I've ever been in.  Even for Iowa standards.

2.  Isle Casino - Cape Girardeau, MO.  Another casino visited while on a work trip.  This one was pretty new and modern looking.  Not the easiest place to get to when you are just trying to make a quick stop on your way to the airport in St. Louis though.

3.  Horseshoe Casino - Cincinnati, OH.  The last of the four land-based casinos in Ohio to open (Ohio also has a handful of Racino's).

4.  Horseshoe Casino - Baltimore, MD.  Just opened in August of 2014, this is the 4th casino (with live table games) in Maryland.  A planned 5th is set to open in 2016.

5.  Rocky Gap Casino - Cumberland, MD.  Opened in early 2013, this was the 3rd casino in Maryland to open.  Guess I'll have to track down chips for the Hollywood Casino and Maryland Live! before too long.

6.  Linq - Las Vegas.  The Linq replaces the Quad, which was the Imperial Palace.  The name "The Quad" lasted for about 18 months, so the Linq has a low bar to clear.  We'll see if it's still in operation in June of 2016.

7. SLS - Las Vegas.  The SLS is the new Sahara, and opened in mid-2014.

8.  Cromwell - Las Vegas.  This replaces Bill's, which replaced the Barbary Coast.  The Coast is still one of my top 3 favorite places to gamble (along with the Monte Carlo and the Bellagio between 3am and 5am).

9. Westgate - Las Vegas.  The Westgate is the new LVH which was the new Las Vegas Hilton.  This name change happened in July 2014.  Westgate is known for being a time-share company, so it'll be interesting to see if the old Hilton shifts from casino/hotel to time share/casino.

10.  Grand Casino Romania.  Julie's Aunt Linda picked this one up for me while on a long boat cruise of the Danube.  This casino is located in the Marriott Hotel in Bucharest.  The front of the chip reads "10 Ron" which I think means it is worth roughly $3 in U.S. equivalency.  Hopefully, the exchange rate brings the value up as it would currently rank last amongst my chips for face value.

11.  Holland Casino.  Aunt Linda got this one for me on the same trip as the above.  But the Holland Casino was located inside the Shiphol-Airport, which seems really nice and convenient to me.  5 Euros makes it worth about $6.25, which places it as the second most valuable chip by face value, just behind my chips from London.

Casino Chip Show - Cleveland

This past weekend I was able to attend my second casino chip show, this one just outside of Cleveland.  I was expecting it to be bigger and grander than the one I attended in Battle Creek, but it was probably a little smaller.  And there seemed to be more non-chips on display, things like; ash trays, key cards, dice, signage and other stuff of that nature.  Nonetheless, I was able to come home with 8 new chips.

1.  Casino M8trix, San Jose, California.  Kind of cool looking chip from the new M8trix Casino.  The 8 in the name is in red so at first glance, I read the chip as "Casino Trix."

2.  Rivers Casino, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  My first chip from the Keystone State.  Pretty basic looking.

3.  Rio - Danny Gans.  Danny was called the "Man of Many Voices" and for a while advertisements for his show could be found on virtually every cab and bus in Vegas.  He performed at the Strat, the Mirage and the Rio before dying in 2009 at age 52.  I had no idea he was a pro baseball player and only stopped playing due to an injury to his Achilles tendon.  The theater at the Mirage is named after him.

4.  Holiday Inn Casino Boardwalk - Grand Opening.  The Boardwalk opened in 1995 - it seemed way older than that.  Had a great Strip location between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo.  Also had a fake roller coaster on top of their main entrance, long before casinos started putting actual roller coasters inside.  It was imploded in 2006 and the City Center now sits where I used to play $3 blackjack.

5.  Blue Man Group - Monte Carlo.  The Blue Man Group moved to the Monte Carlo after fairly lengthy runs at the Luxor and the Venetian.

6.  Stardust - Legendary Old-Timer Bill Boyd.  This chip was put out in 1998 and limited to 2,000 chips.  Bill Boyd is a four-time winner of the 5 Card Stud event at the World Series of Poker. 

7.  Tropicana - Folies Bergere 35th Anniversary.  Maybe that's why the Trop smells like old people - they have the same acts for 35 years.

8.  Flamingo, New Orleans.  I really like the look of this chip, with the small font and dark colors.  Good job Flamingo, NO.

Casino Chip Show, part 1

Went to a Casino Chip Show in Battle Creek on Saturday and picked up a handful of new chips.  It was my first time attending a Chip Show, and it was pretty much what I expected.  Just like a baseball card or coin show.  There were probably 25ish dealers, they all sat behind folding tables with their chips in front of them.  Most of the chips were in plastic sheets inside binders.  And they all had chairs in front of the tables, so you could sit and flip through hundreds and hundreds of chips.  Also, save for one or two people - everyone was 112 years old.  I mean, the collection of people would make a Wednesday Night Bingo Club look young and active.  But it was a pretty good time and I bought chips from 3 (well 4) dealers.  Up first, the Ohio guys.

The Ohio guys were easily the youngest of the dealers - unless I missed someone.  They were also the most talkative and outgoing.  I think they were the first people to talk to me while I initially cased the perimeter.  Nice guys and they gave me some info on another show near Cleveland in April.  The chips I got there:

1.  Hollywood Casino - Columbus.  Just opened.  Looks just like the Toldeo chip only it says Columbus on it.  Since I like the looks of the Toledo chip, I like this one too.

2.  MGM Grand Riddick Bowe/Jorge Luis Gonzalez chip.  I saw this chip in a display and immediately knew I would buy it - barring it being ridiculously expensive.  I was prepared to pay $15 for the chip... and I ended up paying $15, but for two chips.  Since the chip has Bowe on one side and Gonzalez on the other, he wanted to sell them as a set.  No big deal - I'll either trade or sell (hopefully) one of them.  And then display the Bowe side.  Even though the Gonzalez side has the slogan "Mortal Enemies" on it, which absolutely cracks me up.  The Bowe side says "1995 WBO Heavyweight Championship."  Bowe won by KO in the 6th.  Fan of Blog Matt Hoppe found online that the fight was refereed by Mills Lane and the judges were Duane Ford, Chuck Giampa and Jerry Roth.  Which anyone could have guessed - they are the only ref/judges to work in the 1990s.  I just hope this chip becomes more popular than Hop's Lewis/Rahman chip.

October Update

Four new chips have been added since the last update.  In no particular order;

1.  Las Vegas Sports World.  Just like the chip in this update, but with out the "CBS" across the front.  There's a third Sports World chip that has no "CBS" but does have a "Limited Edition" on it.  Not bad for a casino that wasn't open very long.  They dropped the "CBS" from the name/chips when the TV network by the same name threatened to sue.

2.  Stardust old house chip.  Just like this chip, but with a couple minor differences.  On the older chip, the one I just got, the "Stardust" in the silver inlay is in a standard normal font.  The other one had a more "fun" font.  Also, instead of "Hotel & Casino" it says "Resort Casino."  That and the little designs on the outer circle are slightly different.  Instead of the four suits and two dice, it's the four suits with the clubs and spades on twice.

3.  Mahoney's Silver Nugget Mike Tyson chip.  Limited to 1,000.  Old picture of Iron Mike on it with the phrase "One of the Greatest Heavyweight Champions 2001" on it.  Kind of cool.  But also kind of an odd time to put that chip out.  From 2001 on, Mike fought 5 times and lost 3 of them.  None of those fights were in Vegas.  But he did give Alan a vicious cross in "The Hangover."  He's still got it.

4.  Horseshoe Cleveland.  Just opened.  I kind of like the look of this chip (and the Toledo one... when did Ohio get a chip design czar?).  The one thing I think is a tad strange on it is it says "Cleveland OH."  Not simply Cleveland.  I half expected the reverse side to say "Cleveland IO" but it doesn't.  Thanks to Carrie for picking this one up for me.

Off to Winnipeg where they have casinos and I'll hopefully add to my collection.

Toledo

The state of Ohio is opening 4 casinos this year; 2 have just opened and 2 more are on the way.  The open ones are Toledo and Cleveland.  The soon to be open ones are Columbus and Cincinnati.  My parents passed through T-Town the other day and got a chip for me... saving me the hassle of having to spend any time in Toledo.

The Toledo Casino is called "Hollywood Casino."  The chip has a couple of spotlights shining towards the middle with "Hollywood" across it and "Toldeo, OH" below that.  I'm a little surprised there's not a "Fuck Michigan" on the chip.  Maybe they are saving that for the Columbus one.

This is chip #299 for the collection.  I have 4 more coming in the mail so it'll be a race to see which chip gets here first and is number 300.  The anticipation builds...